Known You Longer Than I Thought
by MusicRocks807
Summary: A birthday one-shot for Queen Latifah, the voice of Ellie. Random idea, dedicated to my amazing BFF who helps with my stories, and Queen Latifah, of course, lol. :) Please R&R! :D


Known You Longer Than I Thought

**This is another one of my birthday one-shots, this time for Ellie, or at least, the woman who voiced her, Queen Latifah. Yeah, I know her birthday was actually yesterday, but I've explained stuff at the end.**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Ice Age. Trust me, if I did, the Diego and Shira kiss scene would not have been deleted. BTW, was that actually on the DVD's Deleted Scenes?**

Ellie walked through the trees, looking for her brothers. _I hope they aren't in trouble… _she fretted.

"Hey Ellie," the female mammoth whipped around to see Diego "Whatcha doing?"

"Not much, just trying to find Crash and Eddie. Have you seen them?" she asked hopefully. Diego shook his head.

"Sorry, haven't seen 'em today."

"Okay…" she sighed "Hey, where's Shira?"

Diego sighed this time. "Back at the cave, she said she felt sick… do you have any idea what might be up with her?"

Ellie was pretty sure, but she wasn't sure whether or not to tell him, as she wasn't certain and didn't want him freaking out.

"Uhm… did you two happen to get quite, close, recently?" she asked. Diego blushed.

"Er… yeah, yeah we got… kinda, close…" Diego lowered his head in embarrassment "Why?"

Ellie smirked knowingly. "No reason."

_Let Shira tell him herself, she'll want to… if she figures it out… might have to pay her a visit, actually…_

* * *

"Crash? Eddie?" she called, searching desperately for her missing brothers. She was terrified that they had gotten into trouble, but Diego was just talking to her, and she knew where Shira was, so that was two candidates down. Sid didn't really qualify as a threat, and Ellie liked to hope that Manny wasn't either.

She knew Peaches and Louis would never hurt her brothers, even though they did like to prank the teens… a lot… too much, actually… Ellie decided that she may have to go and have a word with her daughter, just in case.

* * *

Peaches and Louis were standing alone in a clearing, talking about nothing in particular. Until Louis let something slip. The conversation went like this:

"OMG, Louis! Ethan wants to hang out with me! What am I going to do? How should I do my hair? Do you think I need another flower or two?"

"No, you look perfect Peaches!" Louis assured her, but she ignored him, frantically pulling at her hair.

"Ugh! I hate my hair!" whined Peaches, trying to get it to stay in its topknot "It's awful!"

"Your hair is beautiful Peach," blurted out Louis, before he could stop himself "You're beautiful."

"Really? Ya think so?" asked Peaches eagerly, eyes widening in hope and shock. Louis was too embarrassed to speak, but he managed to nod. Peaches squealed and hugged him with her trunk "Oh Louis! You're the best friend ever!"

"Yeah, best _boy_friend, right Peaches?" came a teasing voice. Peaches looked up to see her possum uncles hanging from a branch. She glared at them, as did Louis, which only made them laugh more.

"I'm gonna kill you guys!" she declared, taking to the trees and chasing her uncles away. Louis sat down on a small rock and sighed in defeat.

"I give up…"

Sid was peacefully walking along a small path in the woods, chewing on a stick, when Ellie burst through the trees, scaring the sloth senseless. He screamed loudly, causing a few birds to flap out of their treetop homes.

"Sorry for scaring you Sid," sighed Ellie, pressing her trunk to her forehead.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked, concerned. Ellie shook her head.

"No, I'm not. I can't find Crash or Eddie anywhere and…" Ellie trailed off, unable to continue.

"What's wrong?" insisted Sid. Ellie sighed.

"When me, Crash and Eddie were kids, we used to play around a lot, pranking people, doing childish stunts… like they do now, but I used to join in much more. Then one day, today, actually, when we were four, a hawk was flying overhead, and we didn't notice until it went for them. It left me alone, as I was a mammoth calf, not a possum, but it carried Crash and Eddie away," Ellie shuddered.

"Go on," encouraged Sid "You can tell me."

"I couldn't stop screaming; I thought they were going to die. I was going to get Mom, but I was terrified that she would get mad and abandon me. We lost our father to a hawk, and I feared that she might freak at me if we lost Crash and Eddie too. It was just, so scary…"

Flashback

_A young Ellie sat in the snow, staring up at the hawk carrying off her brothers, tears in her eyes and rolling down her face._

"_Crash! Eddie!" she yelled "Are you okay?"_

"_NOT REALLY!" yelled both possums at the same time. Petrified, and most likely scarred for life, Ellie collapsed crying, thinking she had lost her brothers for good. The hawk was now flying over a cliff that dropped into the ocean, so Ellie had no hope of getting to them now anyway._

_Suddenly, a blast of water shot up from the ocean, a purple sloth riding on it. She looked about adult age, but she had a determined look on her face. She pounced like a big cat, attacking the hawk. Crash and Eddie cheered her on, as did Ellie, but she was a little busy running over to help._

_The hawk, now out of control, crashed into a tree, breaking off part of a branch, and sending a young weasel kit flying. The weasel grabbed a hanging vine and swung off into the distance, letting out a cry of "Ye-Ha!" before swinging back again and kicking the hawk in the face. This caused the deadly bird to drop Crash and Eddie, who Ellie swiftly caught with her trunk. _

_The sloth also fell, but she dropped right off the cliff, screaming "C'mon Precious, catch Momma!" Another blast of water stopped the sloth from falling further, lowering her down._

"_Thank-you!" shouted Ellie, which Crash and Eddie repeated. The hawk had flown off, but the weasel kit was still swinging on the vine._

"_Y'know, I think I could get used to this!" he declared, performing a few tricks, which Ellie, Crash and Eddie applauded. To their surprise, he flung himself to another vine, flipping mid-air, causing more applause from the mammoth and two possums._ _They were disappointed when he disappearing into the distance, yelling "See ya around, mates!" over his shoulder._

"_Thanks for saving us!" Ellie called, and her brothers copied her. Distraught and shocked, the three siblings returned safely home. _

"And that's why I'm so worried about them, in case they got lifted by another hawk," Ellie finished; Sid had tears in his eyes.

"You poor thing!" he squeezed her trunk "Don't worry, we'll find them!"

"Thanks, Sid…" sighed Ellie, hugging him back.

"Aww, I remember that day!" said Granny, hobbling into the clearing.

"Huh?" Ellie and Sid glanced at each-other, surprised they had spoken the same thing at the same time. Granny rolled her eyes.

"Who didja think that purple sloth was, eh?"

Ellie's eyes widened in surprise; it was all coming back to her. Granny had helped save her brothers' lives! Wait, so that meant… Ellie recognised the weasel too.

"Buck…" she breathed.

"Aye?" came a voice from behind. Ellie whipped around, and saw her old friend sat on the branch of a tree. "You called?"

"You were the weasel that saved Crash and Eddie from that hawk when we were kids, weren't you?" she asked, but it was more of a statement. Buck also rolled his eyes.

"Well how many weasels do ya know that swing on vines and fight beasts that could easily kill them?" he asked, quizzically raising one eyebrow. Ellie's face spread into a smile, but it morphed into a look of curiosity.

"Why didn't you say anything in Dinotopia?" she inquired. He shrugged.

"I didn't want to make you guys think that you owed me or anything… and at first I honestly didn't recognise ya," he admitted.

"Shameful!" joked Ellie. Buck raised his hands in defeat.

"Hey, you didn't recognise me until just now!" he pointed out. He did have a good point. Ellie blushed, embarrassed that she hadn't recognised such an important figure from her past.

"I'm sorry… I just – it was… w-with Peaches on her way and…" Ellie pressed her trunk to her forehead in defeat, accepting that she wasn't making the situation better at all by stammering words.

"Sure Mom, blame my arrival!" came Peaches' voice, but it was filled with humour. The only thing was... Peaches was nowhere in sight. Until, of course, Crash and Eddie flew into the clearing, followed by Ellie's teenage daughter.

"BUCK!" they yelled, momentarily forgetting the mammoth who was after them as they ran and hugged their idol.

"I missed you!" exclaimed Crash.

"I missed him too!" added Eddie.

"I missed him _more_!" countered Crash.

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!

"Did too!"

This arguement continued for a while, until Buck broke it up by saying "Alright, alright, ya both missed me! Equally! Can you live with that?" but the weasel didn't give the possum twins a chance to answer. Instead, he gave him a hug and kissed Ellie on the cheek.

"Well, Buck..." she smiled "I guess I've known you and Granny longer than I thought..."

**Okay, first of all, I'm sorry this is late, but I couldn't get things written and posted for yesterday so today was second best. *shrugs* Anyway, please review, and thanks for reading. :)**


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